Gloria Oliver's Blog, page 119

Dues Ex: Human Evolution - YES!!!!!

(No movie review this week. Sept really did end up way busier than normal. This week I'm participating at FenCon.)

It's been FOREVER since I've played a First Person Shooter game of any kind. A lot of it had to do with spending my time on MMOs, but also because a lot of the newer games make the character movements and screens in such a way that, frankly, make me so dizzy I want to hurl. (Missed out on SPACE, Borderlands, FEAR - Waaaaahhhh) Hubby doesn't have this problem, so it's all good for him. (Bah humbug!)

I played the original Dues Ex years ago, so when he told me they had a prequelca called Dues Ex: Human Evolution, I hoped I might actually have a shot at playing it. And YES! No super wobbly graphics! I can PLAY THIS! Woot! 



Premise: Adam Jensen, security chief at Sarif Industries, is massively injured when he tries to stop an infiltration of the science labs at the company. He finds the perpetrators only to be overcome, as one of them exibits greater than human abulities. Jensen is the sole survivor to the incursion, but is in critical condition. Sarif puts his men to save him and gets him augmented with cyber limbs. Six months later, he calls Jensen back into active duty as hostilities once more escalate. Jensen wants answers and is now more than equiped to get them.

Babbling: Started the game about a couple of weeks ago and have been having a BLAST! Currently past the second boss and in a super secret facility in an undisclosed location. (Finding me some missing scientists I am! Bwahahahaha.)

The elements I loved about the original are present in the prequel. I couldn't be more ecstatic. Loads of world info you can choose to read through ebook readers and newspapers left around in the game world, even emails in computers. Nice solid story content. Fun characters. (Totally love the voice work by
I super love that sneaking around is more condusive than just shooting at everything (brought back all my fond memories of Thief!). There are hidden passages all over the place, but there are also some that take you nowhere. So it ups the exploration aspects a bit, I think. And sometimes there are goodies to be found at these dead ends as well. (WARNING: Sewers are not nice. Always try the front door first. Might save yourself some agony. lol)
There's a fun running joke I've been having a blast with. Jensen keeps asking people how they got his frequency as he keeps getting calls on his implants from all over the place. lol. Poor guy never does get a straight answer on that one from anyone. Hee!

Very nice graphics and videos. The two tierd city in Asia is amazing as you fly in. Pretty spectacular and kind of creepy as you look up at it in different areas. And of course there's all sorts of moral issues to consider with all the awesome tech and changes going on in the world's societies, even as some things never change-greed, power hunger, back stabbing, etc.

Totally loving my Q key. The subdue augment ability ROCKS! Especially when you can increase the augment to subdue two peeps at once-great sequences on the take downs too. Oh yeah! And the Typhon weapons system is the BOMB! Just the cool graphic is worth it. Heh heh. Enjoying many of the other skills you can pick up along the way as well. Hacking is cool! And you have to think too, suckers are sneaky in some of the software hacking setups-if you don't pay attention you won't get past it.

I'm pretty sure everything is going to come together in the Artic Sea and I'm totally looking forward to it. Bwahahahahaha! Also heard there will be even more content coming in October with Dues Ex Missing Link. Booyah!

A definite Thumbs UP!

Picture Kaleidoscope 9/21/11

With the weather changing I got several awesome sky shots. Will share those last.


By Hellslide: Got to love those colors! Dang!

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From Jerry J Davis: A cool view of a Chicago building.

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From Io9: Five of Saturn's Moon in One Breathtaking Photo.


Here's my sky pics for the week. :)


Mother Nature teasing us with possible rain, but not actually giving us any. Heh.


Hadn't done a photosynth in a while, so here you go.


Ominous, is it not? Heh





Like a ball of light between two hands. Kamehame ha, anyone? :)


From the Meet and Greet Local Authors and Illustrator event at The Colony Library this past weekend. Met some nice folks. Guy in the corner is a magician and kept us entertained with tricks. So fun!


Till next time! Hopefully I'll get some good ones during Fencon this weekend! Bwahahahaha!

Mind Sieve 9/19/11

More Mind Sieve Madness!





Per the Examiner.com Warehouse 13 has been given the green light for a fourth season! YAY! You can read the full skinny in this article.

Gene Lempp shared a link to an interesting article on the Top 5 Most Used Recreational Drugs by Manon Eileen. Some nice data here.

From GeekChicDaily comes a video with John Barrowman (Capt Jack Harkness) singing about Dr Who.  The Doctor and I (From a tune from the muscial Wicked.) He's got some good pipes on him!

Passed on by Stana Katic from Jessica Ross: Castleblanca. Too cute!

Castleblanca from Jessica Ross on Vimeo.


From CBS we get a peek at NCIS's Ducky's new flame! Was so surprised! Hadn't seen her in a while. She still looks awesome! Can't wait to see her and Ducky together. (No I'm not spoiling it for you, you'll have to click. Heh heh)

Lee Unkrich shared a link to a cool story - Urban Archeology: Sleeping Beauty's Paris Apartment Discovered.  Untouched treasures from the 1940's! Really neat surreal find.

From Examiner.com a story about a 310 Million Year Old Virus by Paul Hamaker.

In Gene Lempp's Designing From Bones series we get Kitchen of Time. Who knew cooking was this important!

A Lee Martinez shares his review of the kaiju themed dice game called King of Tokyo.  Sounds rather fun!

And here is the coolest Cat Pole EVER!  How to Build Your Cat a Tardis fort. Ooooo!!! So totally cool! Wait till you see the inside!

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Per Clever Movies, JJ Abrams has been signed on to direct Star Trek 2~! Now if the script shows better Space Fu than the last, we might get something worthwhile here! Heh heh.







Here is the latest in Kristen Lamb's Dr Twuth series titled: Bots Make Me Bonkers. (Hah! Bots? You want Bots? Come join me in an MMO and then you can really see the spam fly! lol)

Writers Relief wrote a pretty nifty article on Eleven Deadly Sins of Online Promotion for Writers. All very good points!

Abby Larson did a guest blog at Pro Blogger and shared Six Proven Secrets to Blogging Success. All great tips!

Social Butterflies Trump Worker Bees on Social Media - Meet the Connector by Kristen Lamb. (Hm, wonder if I can set out a sugar water dish to attract some. heh heh.) (And, yes, Gene, you are one! You rock!)







Chuck (NSFW) Wendig speaks about The Twenty-Sided Troubadours: Why Writers Should Play Role Playing Games. (Interesting premise. I know it didn't hurt me any to be a playah! And if you get a DM who has a clue, it can be priceless! Hubbins is the BOMB.) :)

Ooo! We get to see things from the OTHER SIDE!  Advice for Agents by Rachelle Gardner. 

Janice Hardy states I Had To Do This: Clarifying Ambiguous Pronouns. And there's examples!

Totally FAB post on What Your Characters Eyes Tell the Reader, guest post by Steven Aitchison. Applying it to your actual writing will take some work, but the info itself is invaluable.

Claudia Gray does a great post over at The Other Side of the Story Blog on I Said, He Said: First vs Third Person. Good stuff!

From Chuck (NSFW) Wendig comes 25 Ways to Plot, Plan and Prep Your Story. Great list!

And Janice Hardy has a nice follow up to her Pronouns post called Oh, Now I Made It Worse: When Editing Goes Astray. Wow, Gary and Bob got a big workout. lol.

Jennifer Laughran explains how It's Not ALL About the Benjamins. Matters from the agent's perspective.

PW Creighton gives examples and walks us through Contrast, Detail, Emotion. Definite food for thought for staging our scenes.

5 Basics of Dialogue You Need to Know by Marcy Kennedy. Oooo! Learned some new terms I did! (Hey, just cause I know how to do something doesn't mean I know what it's called! :P)  


Oh yeah, that should keep you occupied for a bit. Heh heh heh

Movie Review - Seven Days in Utopia

Seven Days in Utopia





Starring: Lucas Black, Robert Duvall, Deborah Ann Woll, Joseph Lyle Taylor, Brian Gerahty, and more.

Directed by: Matthew Dean Russell Writing Credits: David Cook,  Rob Levine, Matthew Dean Russell, Sanda Thrift Based on the Book by: David Cook Original Music by: Klaus Badelt and Christopher Carmichael

Premise: After an emotional blow out an up and comer golfer makes a right turn at an intersection only to find himself in the town of Utopia and meeting the one man who might set him on the right path for his game and his life.

Review: When I first read the blurb on this film, it reminded me of Doc Hollywood (a long time favorite for me and my husband). So finding myself without hubby for movie night, I took a plunge and checked it out (hubby had no interest so it was open season!).

Actually filmed mostly out at Utopia, Texas there are some truly nice visuals of Texas flat lands and ranch homes. While golf is a major part of the story, you don't have to be into the sport to watch the film, any bits not known by the audience explained here and there.

There are no major surprises in the film. Troubled man gets taken under the wing of an older mentor and shown a new way of seeing things. Troubled man comes to certain realizations and improves inside and out. What was actually innovative, in my opinion, were the ways the lessons were taught.  Every time Lucas thought he'd figured out how Johnny was going to teach him some new lesson about golf or life, it was never exactly as he expected. Some were almost brilliant.

You'll find several familiar faces amongst the cast. Lucas Black did pretty well, especially at the very end. Robert Duvall, on the other hand, seemed a little lacking throughout - though there was one scene where he says absolutely nothing yet spoke volumes. Several of the side characters brought a lot of life and warmth to the film. Others were the normal cookie cutter types you usually expect, to add adversarial problems for the protagonist, though they did try to give them a little more depth than typical and even some changes.

Another nice thing were the flashes and flashbacks to what brought Luke Chisolm to the bad place he was at in the first place. For most of his years he'd been living the life forced upon him, not one he chose for himself. In many ways, he's not lived at all.

The method they chose to use at the ending, I can't say did them any favors. It's an open ending, without letting you know the end result, which to me was a given, so no biggie. But worse, they then tantalize you with a website to get the final scoop - www.didhemaketheputt.com  A nice site, with a couple of nice videos by the author, David Cook, and the answer to the question. But at the theater, seeing the website on the screen left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt gimmicky.  Worse, the point about letting God into your life wasn't really reached in the film in my mind. Felt tacked on. Yes, they showed Lucas how to live and be open to experiences, but the connection to faith, to God, felt like a stretch.


Rating: 3 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: N/A)








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Picture Kaleidoscope 9/14/11

Some cool stuff this week.

From Nasa - Hurricane Katia from Space.

(Pic was working then wasn't on the blog page so I'm leaving it in case it will cooperate. Otherwise the link in the text will get you there. :P)

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Updated Lunar Landing site pics from NASA.


For something more down to earth yet creepy is the Child's Skull With Baby and Permanent Teeth. Ewwwww~!


Several sunrises from the last two weeks. :)






Got the above little bugger from the vendors across the isle at Animefest. The EVIL Cuteness made us buy it for our table mascot. Isn't he CUTE?!?!

Sickness came upon my daughter rather suddenly on the first day. Bummer...

Some new arrangements for the Chibi Chains side of the table. :) Shinny eye candy. Heh heh.

Mind Sieve 9/12/11

All righty then! *cracks knuckles* Let's see how much I can find from the last two weeks.





Will Wheaton post on the episode "This One Time at Space Camp" for Eureka and his feelings about the end of the series. So cute!

EW.com did an article on a delete scene in the "Empire Strikes Back" between Han and Leia.I don't personally think it's better. What do you all think?

GeekChicDaily shared a link to Burning Man 2011: Dalek Art Car. The Dalek's were lighting up and swinging to Disco! Booyah!



Gene Lempp shared a neat blog post by Kate Wood on Druids! Some nice tidbits of info.

MangaCurr shared an article from BBC News called "In pictures: Manga meets contemporary dance in TeZukA".  Looks pretty weird. lol. 

Deb Delorme sent me this link to the latest Simon's Cat. For anyone with pets, and especially for writers, this one is for you! Heh - kills me!


Gene Lempp shares his knowledge on Zoo Arcane: Pterodactyl, Luck Owl, Elder Phoenix. Ooo birdies with burst of nocturnal luminescence for the WIN! :)







Dr Twuth! from Kristen Lamb - Are Writers Related to Ferrets? ADD and Social Media. Yes, those EVIL Shinys! Noooo!

Kristen Lamb shares The Secret to Selling Books Part I - Let's Get Sticky! (Uhm no, no that kind! Get your mind out of the gutter. For shame! :P)

Harrison Painter gives us 5 Things People Want From Blogs.  He's got some valid points here.

Dr Twuth again this time to discuss Conquering the Fear of Public Tweeting! Oddly enough, while I have issues initiating conversations face to face, I find it super easy to shout out congrats, hugs, or encouragement to others on Social Media. Hmmm.

Stacey O'Neal has a nice little post about How To Get Book Bloggers To Review YOUR Book. It's amazing how with bloggers, publishers, authors, agents, actors, whoever, people forget they might not be the only one requesting attention!

From the Steve Laube Agency blog - Writers Beware! Protect Yourself! Kinda scary really. Good, sensible advice though.

Maximizing Our Social Media Impact - Having the "Right" Friends by Kristen Lamb. Ack, I see her point and yet, and YET...sigh... lol. I just like to be nice cause I can. Don't get to do it as often as I'd like, but still. So many dimensions of being an author are so hard! Doh!

From Harrison Painter 7 Simple Success Strategies That Make A Difference. These are for small business but apply just as well to authors. :)








Nice little article from the Paper Hangover Blog - Writing 101: Don't Over Think It. I think developing the gut feelings and listening to them is the hardest part. I can edit others all day, but my own stuff, I'm blind! lol.

Roni Loren gives us The Anti-Procrastination Diet. Good rules to live by!

Good post on The Changing Landscape of Publishing by Bob Mayer. The one point he makes that loads of people jumping into the self-publishing bandwagon miss is that he ALREADY had a massive following before putting some of his books out himself. If the following is not already there for you, it won't make much difference and the $$ will not be there. This is a HARD business!

The blog Plot to Punctuation gives us Forty-Five More Flaws That Expose Your Lack of Story Telling Experience Part 1. They only list 9 in part 1 so it's not a huge post. And they've picked some zingers too!

Deadly Sin of Writing #6 - Drifting in the Doldrums by Kristen Lamb. Conflict, conflict, conflict! Bwahahahahahaha!

Nathan Bransford has a nice eye opening blog post on By The Time A Self-Published Author Hits It Big, Do They Really Need a Publisher? Great info and things to consider here.

Awesome blog post by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig - 25 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing. Hear, hear!

Lucienne Diver did a cool post from an agents POV on Query vs Critique. Eye opening!

Candace Havens blogged about Forest and Trees - critique partners. Some nice insights! (I know I can get carried away. lol. I have people who FEAR ME! Bwahahaha - ah, erm, that's not a good thing though... *cry*)

The Devil's In The Details - 3 Ways to Make Your Writing Shine by Kristen Lamb. I fight with some of these to this day! Argh! Will I never be free?

From the Steve Laube Agency - The Slush Pile: Enter at Your Own Risk. Great insight into aspects of the bizz. :)

They also shared Ten Commandments for Working With Your Agent. Heh heh heh.







More Publish America dirt passed on by PN Elrod - Book Festival Organizers Refute US Publisher's Claims of Access. Amazing that they think they can do this stuff. Wow.


Okay that's it for this week. Happy reading!

Movie Review - The Debt

The Debt



Starring: Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Ciaran Hindz, Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, Sam Worthington, Jesper Christensen and more...




Directed by: John Madden Screenplay by: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, Peter Straughan Based on the film "Ha-Hov" by: Assaf Bernstein and Ido Rosenblun Original Music by: Thomas Newman


Premise: Three Mossad agents have carried a secret and lived a lie for over thirty years. Now there's a chance the lie will be exposed.


Review: When I saw the previews for this one, and the name, I made an assumption or two based on what was shown. Unfortunately, my assumption was pretty much bogus. While an interesting film, I think the extra layer I thought they were going to do, but didn't, would have pumped it up a bit, but what can you do? :P


Moving from 1965-66 to 1997 and back again, the story slowly unfolds as we first get to see the lie and then the truth of what actually happened in the teams hunt for Dr Dieter Vogel for crimes against Jews during the war.


Superb acting from everyone involved and the locations were all authentic, with the filming done in Budapest, Tel Aviv and the UK. A lot of the important parts, however, actually happen in an old dilapidated flat in East Berlin. Jesper Christensen really sold it as being both empathic and totally calculating as Dr Vogel.

The characters are interesting and complex and it was fascinating seeing how the 1997 dynamics came to be back in 1966. The three go from a tight well trained unit to barely keeping it together. Despite the lie, I think Rachel was beyond brave in the past and the present. To sit there and be examined by the man they were hunting to get confirmation - brrrrrr.

Watching fate intervene with their best laid plans was fascinating. As well as the reasons they did what they did, when they find themselves in a position they can do nothing about.

A simmering film and sleepy thriller with some large moral questions. I was sold on the ending but hubby was not. Did wish we'd seen a more concrete answer on one point at the end and some of the fallout, but it's left up to us.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5  (Hubby's rating: Better for Matinee)

Picture Kaleidoscope 9/7/11 - ANimefest 2011

Took the camera this time so I ccould get decent pics of the costumes. Camera phone is just not up to this type of thing. :)

Love this guy's Kamesenin-sama from Dragonball. Hee hee!

Rainbow pixie?
Awesome costume from Naruto.
I laughed so hard when I realized what this was. lol. Flat Deathstar. Had fighters and more pasted around it.
This costume was just jaw dropping. Even his feet were hoofed.
Castiel from Supernatural! He was very popular this year. Even saw a Sam and several Deans. Hee!
This costume was awesome just for the giant anchor alone!
GRIM!


Soul Eater peeps. So cool!


The detail on these ladies's costumes were awesome.
Sick child. Had to get her Dad to come take her home. :(

Excalibur!
Look at all those tails!



There were a lot of these candy corn horned peeps around but she had these really cool ears tacked on.
A very nice Darth Maul was in attendance.
Mine craft for the win!

MIB - he even had the red forget machine. (Dang, wish this hadn't come out so blurry! Grrr)
And Officer Jenny!
Con was super busy and peeps seemed to have a good time. Yay!

Mind Sieve 9/5/11

A ton of stuff to sift through this week. Let's see how far I get. heh. (Also, warning! Blogger just changed their interface and it was acting wonky when I was putting this together. Already botched one piece (which I think I fixed). Hopefully there aren't more!

     



 I've heard this name battered around all over the place - The Hunger Games. Looks like there's going to be a movie. Here's a peek.



For "Supernatural" Fans, the author of the upcoming Mythology of Supernatural, Nathan Robert Brown, answers a question about the tattoo the brother's wear as of Season 3.  Interesting!

This super cool video of time lapse photography by Randy Halverson is totally breathtaking!



Fans of Movies shared a link to The Hollywood Reported and a story about the 'Phineas and Ferb' Duo Developing Feature Film. Like we get another season of 'Phineas and Ferb' and a new pilot! Sweet!  (If you've never watched 'Phineas and Ferb' go NOW! You won't be sorry. What's not to like about a Spy Platypus?!?! Go!)

Jan from One Minute Book Reviews shares a growing list of tongue-in-cheek definitions for 40 Publishing Buzzwords. Too cute!

Amy Wilkins shares the Geek Zodiac! (I was born in the Year of the Undead! Brains, Brains! Or maybe, Blood! Blood! heh heh.)

Total Film shares the


 12 Things Happy People Do Differently by Jacob Sokol is a nice little list of how we can improve our own happiness quotient. Some nice tips on the list. (Let's be Happy!)

Way cool article called Computers Get Under Our Skin by Laura Sanders. Science is just mind boggling.



      

Dr Who - The Plan (At least as I see it!)

(Yeppers, you guessed it, no movie review again this week. Hoping to sneak a movie sometime this weekend since Animefest is local, but we'll see. :P)

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

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After a short hiatus Dr Who is back! And with a BANG!  Had to watch the episode "Let's Kill Hitler" with the remote at hand so I could pause to digest bits, but mostly to rewind and rewatch. I believe this is the episode where we now get a foreshadowing of the PLAN and what the hey is going on this season.

Figured I'd lay out my reasonings (plus a few more from a brainstorm with Kathryn Sullivan (Super Whovian Extraordinaire!). So here we GO!

Per canon, Time if fluid and can be changed without incident except for Fixed Points in Time. They've pounded this in over and over. But what people don't think about is that the perception of the Fixed Point itself can be misunderstood. The whole universe is making the assumption that the fixed part of Utah in 2011 is the Doctor's death. In fact, the fixed part is the giant con that will be run on that date on the universe and specifically the Silence. The con that will make everyone believe that the Doctor is dead.

What has been the Doctor's biggest problem the last couple of seasons? The fact everyone sees him as a danger to the universe, even after proving he wasn't it. So how do people who become too visible and who love freedom more than anything do to get peeps off their backs? They fake their deaths. And now that the Doctor has learned the one secret everyone was trying to keep from him (the fact he died and the details) and NO ONE knows he knows, he can set it up.

1) Everyone got invites to be there to see it. Including the Doctor. (And the Silence) Shows foreknowledge of the upcoming event. AND making sure everyone who needs to know knows so the ball can roll in the right direction. (As Kathy points out, the Doctor arrived there in a CAR. Aside from Jon Pertwee's Doctor, he doesn't normally go anywhere except by Tardis. So that he's driving/in one in Utah is hinky.)

2) An old friend shows up to help destroy his body (meaning no one can check on it too closely) , one that leads to the mystery of the girl in the suit (right off the bat making peeps believe the girl in the spacesuit and this spacesuit killer in Utah are related if not the same). Yet now we know River Song is the girl in the suit, and she was as surprised as everyone else at his demise, so can we say Red Herring?

3) The Justice Robot being in the wrong place and time to met out Hitler's Justice. That was someone tampering. Such a unit would not have made such a mistake in time unless made to - bad timing could be catastrophic, especially since they try to take people when they would normally leave the time line, therefore causing no change. The tech mentioned there'd been some sort of a mistake, that they were too early in Hitler's timeline. Since the Doctor has lived through the Justice people being there and the impact they had in helping the situation with both saving River and himself, he would make sure it occurs. And isn't he one of the best hackers around? Heh heh

4) The Flesh. There's already a Flesh Doctor out there and he will be the one to die. (Another reason for disposing of the body - no evidence!) (As Kathy brought up, she asked if it was free Flesh or Slaved Flesh. I was talking Free Flesh. As a copy of the Doctor has already been made. She stated it would be murder, but I said, not if he sacrificed himself. Either because he feels as strongly about freedom as the Doctor (which he would) or they insert that the Flesh only has so long to live and he volunteers (didn't they mention this Doctor was like super old?). Kathy also suggested they could use a Justice Robot for the deed as well and they do have an abandoned unit they can use. Just reprogram the thing.)

5) The Doctor will kill the Doctor. Since it's his set up and his deal. Also, as I said, covers why River is so surprised, because even though she did have a suit, and she did do stuff in it, it isn't her at the lake.

6) I think the Voice Interface is going to play a key spot in there somewhere. Possibly stemming back to how River was conceived/changed in the first place. Maybe...  The Doctor was trying way too hard to make the Amy version be more than its programming. This hints of something being in flux. More hunky stuff! (Might even be the precursor in setting up how River even got made?)

A lot of peeps are feeling weird about Stephen Moffat running the gig, but I have confidence! There's a PLAN!  BWAHAAHHAHAHAHAAHA!

What do you all think is going on?